Lost Places - Chornobyl Zone

After the trip along the border of the evacuation zone together with Safecast volunteers we return to the city. We take up residence in the hotel Ohgiya (ホテル扇屋). The tiny size of rooms and plenty of aluminium and plastic in the decoration evoke the idea of a train compartment. On a small table in the room are bottles with iodine medicine.

It is not more than 80 km from the city of Iwaki to the city of Minamisoma, but that’s if you go straight by the coast through the 20-kilometre evacuation zone of Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant... We have no permit to enter the Fukushima’s “twenty”, so we will have to make a detour of about 180 km. December 25, 2011, at 5 a.m. we leave Iwaki and go to Minamisoma.

Iwaki City, December 24, 2011. At 9 AM we finished shooting at the Hisanohama port and return to Onahama, Iwaki. We are going through coastal areas, which were completely destroyed by the tsunami in March 11, 2011. Construction machinery works and there are many new, rebuilt homes at the area. The entire coast is a large construction site. Ganbarou Fukushima!

Iwaki City, December 24, 2011. At 7 AM we are loading to our vehicle and drive towards the ocean. We are going to a port town Hisanohama. Gamma background level does not exceed 0.2 µSv/h, normal level.